Sen. Kathy Harrington rallied voters and won election in 2010 with a focused campaign against a proposed toll road through Gaston County.

The Gastonia Republican helped to steer support away from the Garden Parkway by immediately getting an appointment to the Department of Transportation appropriations committee. Her reappointment as co-chairwoman of that panel, as well as to the overall Transportation Committee, means she’ll continue to have a powerful voice in guiding transportation funding in Gaston County and across the state.

“It is an honor to be given the opportunity to return to Raleigh to work on behalf of the people of Gaston County,” said Harrington, who was re-elected in November and sworn in for her second two-year term Wednesday. “Our state still has many challenges ahead of us and I will continue to do my best to see that Gaston County and the state of North Carolina are headed in the right direction.”

Committee assignments for newly elected members of the N.C. Senate were finalized this week. Harrington’s 43rd District includes most of Gaston County.

In the 44th District, Sen. David Curtis, R-Iredell, also represents Lincoln County and a smaller portion of Gaston County around Stanley.

The committees that each of the state’s senators have been assigned to represent a broad range of subjects, and offer varying levels of power.

Transportation has been one of Harrington’s key areas of focus since she took office, but she has also advocated for other things, such as changes in the tax code so that the state can recruit more business and create jobs.

She has also been appointed to the Commerce, Finance, Rules and Operations of the Senate, and Judiciary I committees for the next two years.

Curtis is filling the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Jim Forrester of Stanley. Chris Carney of Mooresville was appointed to fill the seat for a year, but Curtis defeated him in a runoff after the Republican primary last year, then won the general election.

As a newcomer, Curtis asked to be appointed as a vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Tax code changes will be one of his key goals, he said Thursday.

“We’ve got to change our tax code and make it a consumption-based code,” he said. “We’ve got to become more business-friendly, and one of the ways to do that is to get rid of the corporate income tax and reduce the personal income tax.”

Any dramatic change to the tax code will be controversial, because it will cause some people to pay more and some to pay less, he said.

“Our only hope of making this work is for everyone to be understanding,” said Curtis. “We’re trying to do this for the good of the state. If we can bring in more jobs and recruit more business, it’s going to be better for everyone who lives here.”

Page 2 of 2 - Curtis also hopes to make an impact through the other panels on which he’ll serve, such as the Education Committee.

“In 1930, when all the counties in North Carolina were going bankrupt, the state basically took over (funding for) education and roads,” he said. “Now we’ve got to rethink that and push power back down to the local level.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.

GastonCounty’s elected leaders in the N.C. Senate will be serving on the following committees for the next two years: